Recently, use of a high temperature rapid processing in the developing step of a photographic material has rapidly increased and the processing time has been shortened to a large extent as well in the processing of the various light-sensitive materials with an automatic processor. In order to achieve a high temperature rapid processing, a developing solution capable of providing a sufficiently high sensitivity in a short time development, a light-sensitive material having an excellent developability with no stain by a residual color even in a shorter time processing, and a light-sensitive material which can be dried in a short time after washing with water are all required. Most automatic processors have built-in drying units and therefore, a higher drying capability is required for the automatic processor if the light-sensitive materials used have inferior drying properties. This, in turn, means that the size of the automatic processor must be expanded. Further, the generation of a lot of heat results in disadvantages such as raising the temperature of the room in which the automatic processor is installed.
In order to prevent these disadvantages, an effort is made to expedite the drying speed of a light-sensitive material as much as possible. The usually used method is to decrease the water content of the light-sensitive material before starting drying by lowering the swelling rates of an emulsion layer and a surface protective layer thereof in the developing, fixing and washing steps, wherein a sufficient amount of a hardener is added in advance to the light-sensitive material during a coating step. In this method, a large quantity of hardener used can increase the drying speed but on the other hand problems such a delayed development and a lowered sensitivity due to the increased hardening, a deteriorated covering power and a delayed fixing speed of the undeveloped silver halide grains even with tabular grains having a high aspect ratio, a deteriorated color residue, and increased amount of hypo remaining in the light-sensitive material after processing occur. The water content in a light-sensitive material before starting drying can also be decreased by reducing the amount of a hydrophilic substance present in the light-sensitive material, i.e., gelatin, synthetic polymer and a hydrophilic low molecular weight substance. In general, a hydrophilic low molecular weight substance is used to prevent drying fog of a silver halide grain in a coating step and the removal thereof causes fog of the light-sensitive material to occur. Meanwhile, the removal in gelatin and/or the synthetic polymer used as a binder for the silver halide grains results in a decrease in the ratio of a binder to silver halide grains, and this, in turn, results in an increase in the ratio Ag/binder. A decrease in an amount of the binder causes disadvantages such as a deteriorated graininess and a tendency for the generation of roller marks in processing. The term "roller marks" as used herein means spot-like silver images formed by pressure of carrier roller in an automatic processor. The generation of roller marks is an obstacle to examine the film for a medical use and is undesirable. These disadvantages make it difficult to decrease the amount of the binder even if a decrease in the amount of the binder is attempted to improve drying properties.